Big Shot, Big Foot Google is reportedly considering charging users a subscription to access its experimental AI-integrated search feature — a proposed measure that would mark the first time the search giant has ever charged users for access to a core feature. That Google’s even weighing such a shift — first reported by The Financial Times — is striking. Google Search rakes in an incredible amount of money without subscription fees, and Google has an arguably monopolistic chokehold on the search marketplace. On the one hand, charging users to access AI search could point to the sheer amount of money and resources it takes to power AI systems in the first place. But as The Guardian’s Alex Hern points out, the search giant’s potential willingness to lock its AI search behind pay-to-play doors seemingly illustrates a unique, self-made problem for Google: that the AI it’s so eager to integrate into its search platform stands to upend the ad model that makes the company the vast majority of its revenue. “Google search prints money. Generative AI burns money,” writes Hern. “What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?” Disrupt Yourself Google’s current ad model is simple. Companies pay Google, and the search giant places advertisements across websites. Users see the ads both in the company’s search results and when they click on one of their endless blue links. Ideally, the brand that’s coughing up the ad dollars makes some sales. And Google wins no matter what. But as Hern explains,…Google Accidentally Admits Something Very Funny About AI